When I was renovating my apartment in The Entrance on the NSW Central Coast my family and I were living there while I was doing all the work myself Renovating Apartment.
When you are renovating and living in an apartment or house you have to keep everything tidy and put tools away all the time. You should be doing this whether you are living there or not but especially when you are living in the building while renovating because no one wants accidents to happen.
During our renovation we replaced all the flooring with the exception of the bathroom/laundry which we didn’t want to have to re-waterproof. We also modified the kitchen and added storage and study nook to the master bedroom. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of creating my own spaces and doing the building work myself.
There were of course many things that I learned along the way about the order in which to do things and how they should be done. In addition these practical things that I learned about the renovating, I also learned a couple of lessons about buying materials.
The most important rule I learned was plan what you are going to do so you can make sure you’re doing things in the right order Renovating Apartment. There are many things to consider when thinking about what order jobs should be done in, including messiness, what can be done in parallel, what will be in the way, etc.
For instance one of the things we did was put built in bedsides in the master with lights above them hung from the ceiling. They looked awesome when they were done but they were one of the last things we did because it was a big job. Unfortunately this created a huge mess because we needed to cut channels in concrete to put in the wiring.
Messy jobs like this need to be done early as you don’t want to be trying to stop the concrete dust getting into carpets. Equally having skirting on before carpeting is another classic example of a job that must be done before contractors arrive.
In our master I also created recessed shelving in a bulkhead which equally created a lot of mess. Thankfully I did this before we got the new carpeting into the bedroom but this was one of those jobs where I thought it wouldn’t be that hard but found out that it actually was very time consuming.
Once you’ve done your plan and you’re sure what jobs you can do yourself and what you’re going to hire someone else to do you should review what tools you have and need. This is not an area to skimp on. Don’t buy the most expensive tools either, make sure you have the right tools because this will make all the difference to the end result.
Make sure you do plenty of research on how to do the jobs that you’re going to undertake yourself. This will help to make sure you get the right tools and materials for getting your job done right the first time.
I should point out though that there are some jobs you shouldn’t try to do yourself unless you are licensed. Electrical, plumbing and waterproofing works should be left to the professionals as these need to pass certification or are simply dangerous.
During my renovation I hired an electrician to help me with the aforementioned bedsides in the master bedroom. Like many building services I tracked him down using an online portal that connected us and allowed me to pay for his services. I hired him a few times during the renovation to assist me with wiring the place up how I wanted it.
Similarly I also found that I could hire skip bins on the Central Coast online using Seventy-Nine Skips who specialise in rubbish removal. Luckily the construction direction gave me permission to use the buildings bins to the waste in my Renovating Apartment, however this is something that does not frequently happen after renovating an apartment or house.
Using these types of services you can make sure you’re getting a fair deal on materials and services by getting quotes from a few people rather than trusting the first one you get.
When we first started we ordered the flooring from the first person we visited. We since worked out that we didn’t get a very good deal on those materials as the person we got our carpeting from could do similar flooring from a third of the price.
My final thoughts on doing a DIY job on your own renovation would be that having a good friend who is willing to help you out is far from a bad idea. Some of the things you will need to do will require heavy lifting and often having someone to help can make the difference between it looking good and things getting broken.
While I was trying to re-seat a piece of marble bench top that I had cut one of the pieces broke off it because it was too heavy for me to lift easily. Unfortunately this meant I either had to try and hide the mistake I had made or replace the entire bench top. Had I have had someone there who was giving me a hand with that job I might not have screwed that part up.
In the end we chose to leave it as it was but I always saw the mistake I had made and it always made me feel disappointed with the outcome. Unfortunately you won’t be able fix every mistake you make along the way, often you’ll just have to do something to adjust to make the work look reasonably good when you’re on a budget.
All in all Renovating Apartment our apartment on the NSW Central Coast was a fun and enjoyable experience which I hope to repeat on our next property in the near future. I hope you have been able to learn a little from my mistakes, I know I certainly did. Good luck with your renovating!